The Roman Catholic Institute

“I profess that Vatican II and the doctrinal, disciplinary and liturgical reforms which have proceeded from it are substantial alterations of the Catholic Faith.”

These words contain the fundamental truth of the whole traditional movement. The central question for every Catholic since Vatican II is this: Is the religion which has come out of Vatican II and its changes the same religion as before Vatican II?

If the answer is “Yes, it is the same religion,” then there is no need to reject it or condemn it. It would be schismatic and even heretical to reject it. If, on the other hand, the answer to the question is “No, it is not the same religion,” then Catholics must uncompromisingly reject it, in the same way that the Church rejected and condemned all heresies in the past. Just as there is no middle ground between yes and no, so there is no middle ground between accepting the Vatican II reforms as the Catholic Faith or rejecting them as non-Catholic.

Consequently, nothing else in this Theological Directory, or in the Liturgical and Pastoral Directories, would make any sense unless it is true that the Vatican II reforms constitute a new religion which substantially alters the Catholic Faith in doctrine, discipline, and liturgy.

“I profess that these heretical, evil, and blasphemous reforms can in no way proceed from the Roman Catholic Church, since she is infallible in her doctrines, her disciplines, and her liturgical worship.”

This passage is a profession of faith in the infallibility and indefectibility of the Catholic Church. The very essence of the Catholic Church consists in the assistance which Christ, her Invisible Head, gives to her, all days even to the consummation of the world, as He said before He ascended. He accomplishes this assistance through the Holy Ghost the Paraclete. If you take away this assistance from the Church, she would not differ from any merely human church or religion, and would be subject to all of the religious errors and deviations which have plagued humanity from the time of the Fall of Adam and Eve. The very reason why we give our assent of faith to the teaching of the Church is that she has this assistance from Christ, and has the power to teach in His name.

The assistance means that the Church is indefectible, that is, she will remain until the the end of time as a visible and hierarchical institution, and that she will always remain the same, just as Christ founded her. This means that through her hierarchy she will always teach the same doctrines, both dogmatic and moral, will always retain the same essential liturgical practices, and will always prescribe the same essential laws and disciplines. By this principle, her liturgy, although it may vary in accidental forms, must always teach the Catholic doctrine, and only the Catholic doctrine, in its rites and ceremonies. In discipline, the assistance of Christ guarantees that the Church will never make a law that prescribes or permits something which is sinful.

As a logical conclusion from the first sentence, therefore, namely that the Vatican II religion is a substantial deviation from the true Faith, we say that it is impossible that this substantial deviation proceed from the authority of Christ which is vested in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. “Whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven.” It would be contrary to the promises of Christ that the Catholic hierarchy promulgate what is a substantial alteration of the Catholic Faith.